A unique art installation has been created by knitters around the world to commemorate the D-Day landings at St Macartin’s Cathedral in Northern Ireland. The Longest Yarn exhibition includes around 80 scenes crafted by knitters from the UK, Ireland, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and France, showing the events leading up to, and the battles of the 1944 Normandy campaign. The exhibition is the brainchild of Tansy Forster, a native of Northern Ireland now living in Normandy, France. Forster was inspired to create the display in Normandy and it was seen by others that led to it being displayed in Northern Ireland.
One of the displays in the exhibition is inspired by the weather report from Maureen Sweeney which led to the Allied invasion being postponed for 24 hours. Another prominent display depicts the role of Enniskillen veteran Bill Eames, who died recently, in towing an aircraft for the Normandy campaign. The exhibition’s creator, Forster, believes that people are drawn to the exhibition because of the work and care that has gone into each scene. Forster says, “It’s done with our own hands, and it’s taken a while, and there’s thought and there’s love gone into it”.
Members of Enniskillen crafting group, St Macartin’s knitting group, The Knitwits have aided The Longest Yarn project. The Knitwits will be contributing towards the next Longest Yarn project, which will focus on Britain at War.
For Jean Wood, who lives in County Cork, she saw a Facebook post that drew her to the project. Wood created a field hospital near Utah Beach with soldiers and an ambulance, to make the scene historically accurate, she carried out extensive research. Jo Groves from Cornwall created a scene showing the first liberated village with a church and locals greeting the soldiers. Groves and her friend took more than 300 hours of hard work to create the scene as a homage to the veterans. The aim of the exhibition is to express gratitude for the efforts many made during the war
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